Patriots Day

Start to finish it keeps you going right up to the end

There seem to be a lot of negative reviews for this movie because of an apparent mis-telling of the story or true story or hoax or whatever else people have said. As I'm not American, and have very little to do with American events (so hence have no context as to the truth or hoax or conspiracy or whatever of the Boston Marathon) I shall just stick to reviewing the movie for what it is: a movie.

As a movie, they did a great job pulling it together. Mark Wahlberg plays his character perfectly. I have no idea if thats because of his acting ability, or if its more the fact that someone has yet again created a character that fits Mark Wahlberg to perfection. To be honest, it's probably the latter. Because of that, if you liked Deep Water Horizon then you'll probably like this because his acting is the same in both (which works fine because it's similar type of emotion and adrenaline you'd expect from both situations).

The character spread was also well done. You got to see the impacting/impacted characters early on and had a nice transition between their development as the movie progressed.

My only reservation about the film is that it pretty much gives you no explanation as to why the bombing even happened. Sure, it's easy for people to shout that it was terrorism or a hate crime, or done by hateful people, but that isn't an explanation. It might be true, but it's not an explanation, it's blatant ignorance which the world can no longer afford. This film could have benefited so much from shedding some light on the bombers motivation!!! To be honest, they were actually the one part that let this film down, Their storyline was wasted on surface level personality development and retracing of their steps throughout the event. Instead, the film should have used that time to instead show their motivation to commit the acts. This would have deepened their storyline and given the movie as a whole, a much richer and more stimulating story. In saying that, Themo Melikidze did a great job of making a believable character out of the little depth he was given.

All in all this was a good film, however, it does lack the depth and backbone necessary for a second viewing.

Various people's lives cross path in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and its following manhunt. It is directed by Peter Berg and starring Boston native Mark Wahlberg.

Originally, I feared Mark Wahlberg. He's not the greatest of actors although my bigger fear is that they would make the movie about him. That partly happened. Honestly, I cringed when he started yelling at Kevin Bacon and I rolled my eyes when he showed up to interview the Chinese guy. By placing him in the center of every aspect of the investigation, the movie loses a sense of reality. There is no need for him to be at every aspect of the manhunt. I do love the walk-thru with the security cameras. Otherwise, his role should be cut in half. This shouldn't be a vehicle for Mark.

On the other hand, I am overjoyed with the other people's stories. I love the Chinese guy and MIT security guy. This could cut back Wahlberg mugging for the cameras and add work from the other cops. Give me more J.K. Simmons. This movie should not be an one-man story if it purports to show the events in its entirety.

I saw this movie at a preview showing and was very pleasantly surprised.

The movie is great, the cast are uniformly excellent, and the plot moves along really nicely. I was mesmerized throughout, the pacing was excellent and, even though we all remember the outcome from the extensive news coverage, I was surprised at some of the things that happened before the end.

It was surprisingly moving at a few points, sorry, no spoilers so I won't say any more.

Great job to everyone who worked on this movie.

The day is 15 April 2013; the place is Boston; the occasion is the annual marathon. As we all know, two radicalised Chechen immigrants, Dzhokhar (Alex Wolff) and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Themo Melikidze), set off two bombs which killed three people and injured several hundred others, including 16 who lost limbs.

This film is a very workmanlike and respectful, almost documentary-style, account of the eve of the event, the bombing itself, and tracking down of the assailants in a tense five-day manhunt. Mark Wahlberg, reuniting with the director for the third film in a row, is Boston detective Tommy Saunders, a composite of several real people, while Kevin Bacon plays FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers.

For writer and director Peter Berg, following "Lone Survivor" and "Deep Water Horizon", "Patriots Day" can be seen as the third part of his unofficial Americans-in-crisis trilogy which probably play better for US audiences than overseas, but manage to combine information with entertainment.

This time round, the viewer cannot fail to be struck by the complexity and sophistication of modern-day surveillance and forensic technologies. If only these technologies could prevent terrorist incidents (without too much of a sacrifice of our privacy and freedoms) as well as find those who have just committed such an atrocity.